The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that since the beginning of Ramadan, it has documented 43 ISIS attacks against regime forces and their loyal Syrian and foreign militiamen in the Syrian desert, as well as Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the eastern Euphrates region.
According to the Observatory, the attacks ranged between blasts, executions and ambushes.
“Neither SDF and international coalition security campaigns in the eastern Euphrates nor the large reinforcement brought in recently by the Iranians and regime forces to the desert have been able to contain ISIS’ growing activities and attacks,” the Britain-based watchdog said.
In areas under the control of regime forces and loyalists, SOHR said it documented 11 ISIS attacks, mainly concentrated in the desert of Deir Ezzor and Homs, leaving 37 regime soldiers and loyal militiamen dead, in addition to the killing of a civilian woman in a field execution.
In SDF-held areas, the Observatory documented nearly 32 ISIS attacks, mostly concentrated in cities and towns of the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, which left 21 persons dead.
Meanwhile, Observatory sources confirmed that the international coalition carried out Friday a new airdrop in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, targeting in Al-Shuhayl town the house of a person who lives outside Syria and is inhabited by a displaced family from Bukamal.
It said a group of SDF and coalition members raided the house and arrested the men living there. There were no further details on the identity of the men.
An ex-ISIS member, who lives next to the targeted house, was killed during the operation.
On May 19, Observatory activists reported an airdrop conducted by US forces in the Deir Ezzor countryside. That was the third operation of its kind to be carried out in the area in three consecutive days.
On Friday, the US Central Command announced that US-led coalition forces and their Kurdish allies killed two regional ISIS leaders in a raid in eastern Syria this week.
Ahmad 'Isa Ismail al-Zawi and Ahmad 'Abd Muhammad Hasan al-Jughayfi were killed in the May 17 joint raid on an ISIS position in Deir Ezzor province, CentCom said in a statement.
Since its territorial defeat in Syria in March 2019, ISIS attacks have been restricted to the vast deserts stretching from Deir Ezzor to Homs in the center of the country.
